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Getaround

Combine a really fast electric vehicle, a really high per-hour rental charge and visions of Steve McQueen or Ken Block of Gymkhana fame racing through the City by the Bay, and you have a really bad combination. Or a really good one.

Car sharing network Getaround has just launched a refreshed site design that will make peer-to-peer car rentals even easier. Think of Getaround as the Airbnb of cars, a place where you can list or rent an insured ride at an hourly or daily rate.

Could peer-to-peer car sharing be coming of age? The nascent business model got a huge shot in the arm today, in the form of $13.7 million of funding for Wheelz, a car sharing program based on college campuses. Zipcar, of course, is the 800-pound gorilla of the car sharing ecosystem, operating in three countries and boasting nearly 700,000 clients. Perhaps equally important is that among those bankrolling Wheelz is Fontinalis Partners, a Detroit-based investment firm founded by Bill Ford, Execut

If you have a vacation home that's currently vacant, an apartment you can part with, or you're simply going to be away from your home for an extended period, Airbnb allows you to turn your empty house or apartment into a temporary rental unit. Potential guests can peruse images of empty lofts, cottages, and condos around the world, see reviews from previous visitors, and lock in a reservation in a prime location for a fraction of the cost of going commercial.

Xatori, maker of "innovative" software for electric vehicles, is offering a special deal related to its flagship app, PlugShare. Xatori and peer-to-peer firm Getaround have teamed up to reward select PlugShare users $50 for sharing their plug-in vehicles on Getaround's marketplace.

Silicon Valley startup Getaround offers a carsharing service with a twist. Unlike companies like Zipcar, which owns the vehicles that are available for use by its members, Getaround is a peer-to-peer-based service that works like this: car owners agree to put their autos up for rent on an hourly, daily or even a weekly basis. The vehicle owners set the rental rates and Getaround simply pairs up what it calls the "buyers" with the "sellers."